Rick, I cut my teeth on an old 70s version of Joy of Cooking that I bought new around '73. I built up a huge collection of cookbooks which eventually culminated in my Purchase of The Culinary Institute of America's "The New Professional Chef"
I've since tossed out most of the cookbooks in between and those two are the only ones I ever use. The internet is where I grab most of my new recipes these days, unfortunately a lot of very bad cooks have published a lot of very bad recipes online. It sometimes takes a discerning eye to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Good coffee, good weed, and time on my hands...